in a hundred." "There seems to be something of the old Celtic
hatred to the Saxon in this old fellow," said I to myself, as I walked
away.

I proceeded till I came to the head of the canal, where the navigation
first commences. It is close to a weir over which the Dee falls. Here
there is a little floodgate, through which water rushes from an oblong
pond or reservoir, fed by water from a corner of the upper part of the
weir. On the left, or south-west side, is a mound of earth fenced with
stones which is the commencement of the bank of the canal. The pond or
reservoir above the floodgate is separated from the weir by a stone wall
on the left, or south-west side. This pond has two floodgates, the one
already mentioned, which opens into the canal, and another, on the other
side of the stone mound, opening to the lower part of the weir.
Whenever, as a man told me who was standing near, it is necessary to lay
the bed of the canal dry, in the immediate neighbourhood for the purpose
of making repairs, the floodgate to the canal is closed, and the one to
the lower part of the weir is opened, and then the water from the pond
flows into the Dee, whilst a sluice, near the first lock, lets out the
water of the canal into the river. The head of the canal is situated in
a very beautiful spot. To the left or south is a lofty hill covered with
wood. To the right is a beautiful slope or lawn on the top of which is a
pretty villa, to which you can get by a little wooden bridge over the
floodgate of the canal, and indeed forming part of it. Few things are so
beautiful in their origin as this canal, which, be it known, with its
locks and its aqueducts, the grandest of which last is the stupendous
erection near Stockport, which by-the-bye filled my mind when a boy with
wonder, constitutes the grand work of England, and yields to nothing in
the world of the kind, with the exception of the great canal of China.

Retracing my steps some way I got upon the river's bank and then again
proceeded in the direction of the west. I soon came to a cottage nearly
opposite a bridge, which led over the river, not the bridge which I have
already mentioned, but one much smaller, and considerably higher up the
valley. The cottage had several dusky outbuildings attached to it, and a
paling before it. Leaning over the paling in his shirt-sleeves was a
dark-faced, short, thickset man, who saluted me in English. I returned
his salutation, stopped,